SNAKE-EYE MISSILE

The US Army's Snake-Eye missile had originally been designed as a surface-to-air heat seeking missile. A recent upgraded guidance system made the missile programmable and gave it extended range, variable use, and pinpoint accuracy to any target, even as specific as a precise room within a given building. Many missiles were already in surplus, and with the new guidance system that would triple its value, the missile had become a real commodity among Third World nations, with underground hijackings and black market arms dealers ripping each other off for their stockpiles. One such arms dealer, Hatcher, had orchestrated the theft of several of the Snake-Eye missiles with the intention of selling them to interested buyers.

However, Professor Willis, one of MacGyver's former college professors, had discovered a glitch in the new guidance system, and he had been working with the Defense Department to fix the problem. As was often his practice, he had also had some of his students work on the problem with him, and Kate Lafferty, a young but brilliant student of his, in her eagerness to solve the problem, had broken into the Defense Department's computer and had been able to find a solution. Consequently, both Hatcher's men and the Department of Defense sought Professor Willis's help to correct the flaw in the guidance system. Because of his past with the professor, MacGyver approached Willis to ask for the solution, a solution Willis was willing to share as long as there were no negative consequences for Kate's innocent enthusiasm. However, Hatcher's men attempted to abduct Willis and force his cooperation, and when Willis struggled for the gun and was accidentally killed during the botched abduction, Hatcher's men turned their attention to Kate.

Resentful of being treated like a criminal, Kate was unwilling to cooperate with MacGyver, or with the Office of Defense Intelligence when agents Oslow and Rogers had taken her downtown for questioning. However, when Hatcher's men, including Larkin and Walker, captured Kate and threatened to use sodium pentothal to acquire the information they needed, she felt she had no choice but to cooperate, and Hatcher arranged the sale of the missile with his buyer. Before making the purchase, the buyer demanded a demonstration to prove that the guidance system was operational, and he designated the coordinates for the test: 37° 47' N and 122° 30' W, the location of the Clinton Narrows Bridge in the South Bay, unaware that the South Bay Marathon would be taking place at the same time and there would be thousands of runners on the bridge.

With MacGyver's help, Kate was able to escape from Hatcher. Together, by using triangulation to locate the missile and ingenuity to blow up a jeep and knock out Larkin and Walker, they were able to prevent the launch of the test missile, however Hatcher, at a second location, launched a second missile instead. Kate removed the guidance system chip from the first missile, returning it to its original surface-to-air heat seeking configuration, and when launched, the missile sought and destroyed its guided counterpart in mid-air. The bridge and the marathon were unaffected, and the authorities were able to arrest Hatcher and his men, as well as the buyer.

Portrayed by:

Cross Reference: Clinton Narrows Bridge, Hatcher, Kate Lafferty, Larkin, Oslow, Rogers, South Bay Marathon, Walker, Professor Willis

Episode Reference: Ugly Duckling